Dunhill 1968 Tanshell 127 Sandblasted Billiard Estate Briar Pipe, English Estates

Description

To veteran pipe smokers, Dunhill needs no introduction. Beginning in 1907, Alfred Dunhill began selling Dunhill pipes at the tobacconist shop he owned on London’s Duke Street. Very quickly, these pipes gained the reputation of being the “Rolls-Royce” of pipes due to how expertly crafted they were. Today, Dunhill is likely Britain’s most famous pipe manufacturer, and continues to produce some of the most treasured pipes a smoker can buy.

After the Bruyere, the Shell Briar, and the Root Briar, the Tanshell was Dunhill’s fourth line of pipes, first introduced all the way back at the beginning of the 1950s. Leveraging the immense success of the Shell Briar, the Tanshell was, as the name suggests, distinguished by its sandblasted finish, though instead of the Shell Briar’s burgundy hues, the Tanshell retained a minimal, and very natural, tan dress. This meant that, over time, a Tanshell’s bowl would color not unlike a meerschaum pipe, with the various residues from the tobacco burned in its chamber seeping into the briar and infusing it with a golden patina.

This Tanshell comes from 1968, right at the tail end of Dunhill’s fondly remembered, first post-patent decade, not least because of the specially selected briar used for the sandblasted pipes of that decade (dense Sardinian root for Tanshells and lighter Aglerian for Shells) and the patented oil-curing treatment applied to the resulting stummels. This Tanshell is rendered in one of the Dunhill’s classic stout billiard renditions, the “LB”-adjacent “127” and looks to have been turned in a cross-cut fashion, emphasizing a billowing, bird’s-eye relief around the bowl.

The condition is good. Some darkening and general wear to the rim and some finish fading on the bowl.

Details:

Length: 5.8″ / 147.3mm

Bowl Width: 0.80 / 20.32mm

Bowl Depth: 1.54″ / 39.11mm

Weight: 1.8oz / 52g